


The Party

by historyofamanda



Series: I Am Always With You [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Acceptance, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Healing, Mass Effect 3: Citadel, Reminiscing, Romance, Shrios
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-06 08:06:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6746104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historyofamanda/pseuds/historyofamanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war is won and the Reapers have been destroyed, Shepard throws a party at her apartment. However, she's got far more than just the party on her mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Party

**Author's Note:**

> Things to keep in mind:  
>  •This story takes place after the Destroy ending, but in this version the non-reaper synthetics survived.   
> •Shepard survived the Destroy ending, she was picked up by the Normandy and healed at Huerta Memorial.   
> •Thane is still alive, his story follows the PC Thane Mod’s story where his Kepral’s syndrome was treated and he received a lung transplant.  
> •Shepard's apartment in this series is meant to be seen as the one shown in the ME3 Citadel DLC.

“Shepard?”

She glanced up. She had been standing silently, arms crossed, leaned up against the wall near her desk. Her gaze never left her private terminal, pleading internally that she would see that green light blinking.

“You’re missing the party, Shepard. Come out and join us.” Garrus said.

This party had not been Shepard’s idea, but for some reason several of her friends absolutely insisted on it. Shepard reasoned it must be to get her to socialize after everything she had been through.

She broke her gaze and slowly looked up at Garrus. She smiled, but there was sadness in her eyes.

She had been staring off into space more than ever before, often getting lost in memories of her fallen friends. 

She constantly thought about the talks her and Mordin had, the funny and creative side of the scientist that so few had seen but was so familiar to her. He was her friend above all things. She spent a lot of time in the med bay, she enjoyed Mordin’s company and she could usually concentrate on her reports better in there than in her cabin. She recalled a time after the destruction of the collector base when the massive scale of the war had overwhelmed her. She had her face in her palms, sitting at an unused desk in the med bay. She felt a gloved hand on her shoulder.

“Shepard. Concern unnecessary. Understandable, but unnecessary. You’ve assembled strongest fighting force in galaxy. Self included. Become too invested now. No room for failure. Statistically improbable that we fail now. Nothing you can’t handle. Sure of it.”

Mordin did not typically speak so sympathetically, as his logical nature could occasionally leave his words feeling slightly cold. His words moved her deeply and she thanked him. After that, they listened to hours and hours of Mordin’s favorite musical theater albums. She loved listening to him hum along to the songs while he conducted research.

She reminisced about the days during her pursuit of Saren, when her and Ashley sat on the floor of the lower deck of the Normandy SR-1 and played cards until the wee hours of the night. Ashley told Shepard countless stories of the mischief her and her sisters got into as children, and the deep love and respect she had for her father. She told her the corny jokes he would tell her and they laughed together as Ashley consistently beat Shepard at every game. Shepard was a terrible poker player, but she wouldn’t have given up that time with Ashley for anything. Shepard felt the slightest bit of relief from her unending guilt when she thought of Ashley getting to be with her father again.

Today though, her mind was somewhere else.

Shepard looked away.

“I’m sorry, it’s just-”

“I know, you’re worried about Thane.”

“I haven’t heard from him since he sent me a message a week ago that he was getting his lung transplant. Nothing from him or Kolyat. This isn’t like him, Garrus.”

“I’m sure he just needed time to rest, and Kolyat has most likely just been by his side taking care of him. And, not to mention, you saved the galaxy, brought down the Reapers, and changed the future of the universe as we know it in the last week. There’s been a lot going on.”

Shepard laughed. The laugh made her cough and she clutched her ribs. She wasn’t fully healed from her injuries. Miraculously, she escaped from the rubble with only cuts and bruises, and occasional coughing fits.

The memory was still fresh in her mind.  
She could feel the dirt in her lungs, the taste of metal and blood on her tongue. She had gone unconscious for only a few minutes, and when she woke up, it was to the sound of Joker’s desperate cries through her earpiece.

“Commander?! Shepard? Come on Shepard, you cannot die on us now. We have gone through way too much shit for you to not see the end of this!” Joker’s voice began to break. “…Shepard. Commander. Please…”

Shepard’s eyes opened and she immediately began coughing violently.  
She was almost unbearably sore and bruised everywhere, but she was able to sit up.  
“J-Joker..”

“SHEPARD! Guys, she’s alive! She’s alive! Shepard, are you alright? Where are you? Is your omni tool still working?”

She looked to her arm and her omni tool flickered bright orange.

“I’m a little beat up but” *cough* “nothing I can’t” *cough* “walk off.“

Joker, who was standing upright in the cockpit of the Normandy, watched the final red sparks fly off the defeated reapers from the window of the ship. He felt warm tears run down his cheeks as he let out a relieved laugh.

“Sending you my coordinates now, Joker.”

“On our way, ma'am!”

Shepard snapped back into the present, and a tear fell down her face. It was over, but she was still shaken from everything she had experienced in the last week. Garrus shook her shoulder encouragingly and they walked out of the office into the main area of the apartment.

Shepard looked around at her friends and felt a wave of comfort and affection go through her.

Kaidan and Tali were in the kitchen, Kaidan cooking another “Canadian delicacy” of some kind and Tali was hovering behind him, fascinated by the process. She hopped up onto the counter and sipped from her cup, laughing at a bad joke Kaidan told her. Shepard couldn’t remember the last she heard Tali laugh, she was glad to hear it.

Joker and EDI were sitting at the piano, EDI patiently teaching him to play “The Entertainer”. Joker had one arm on the keys and one arm around her waist. Every few minutes Joker would laugh at a joke EDI told.

Jack and Zaeed were sitting on the couch, arguing over whether weapons or biotics were the most effective killing method.  
“My Jessie could have taken out your goddamn Warp any time, any place. You don’t need some fancy implants, all you need is one good gun.”  
“Are you a fucking lunatic? Warp can rip you to pieces in one shot! Your precious gun wouldn’t stand a chance!”  
Jack’s body glowed blue as she grew angrier, her beer spilling onto the floor as she stood up out of her seat and threw her arms around. Zaeed feigned frustration, but he seemed to be amused by the conversation.

Shepard looked up and saw Wrex and Grunt on the balcony, laughing their booming laughs and comparing new scars from their fight on Earth.

James and Steve sat on the couch nearest the TV, watching a biotiball tournament. Shepard heard James cursing in Spanish as his team suffered a devastating penalty, just minutes before the end of the quarter.

Javik was leaning up against the side of a wall, looking out of the huge window in the apartment. His glances frequently alternated between the window and Liara (this had become a more frequent occurrence since the end of the war), but she was too distracted to notice.

Liara had been reading a datapad (her work as the Shadow Broker had only lessened slighly since the defeat of the Reapers, she mainly assisted with clean up and rescue efforts these days), looked up to see Shepard and Garrus entering the room and rushed up to her, seeing Shepard’s tear stained face. 

“Shepard, are you alright?”

Shepard wiped her eyes and smiled.  
“I’ll be fine.”

Liara looked at her tired and bruised Commander with deep affection and concern.  
“Everyone has been asking where you were.”

Shepard joined her friends and spent hours reminiscing, eating, drinking, crying, and laughing. It was clear everyone was grateful to be in each other’s company.

Later in the night, Shepard felt an invisible presence behind her and immediately knew to turn around. Kasumi appeared behind her and her eyes twinkled. “You have a new message, Commander.”

Shepard jumped up and walked a little too quickly to her private terminal.  
The green light she had hoped for was finally there.

“Subject: My love”  
“Message: Turn around.”

Shepard spun around and Thane rushed her, almost crushing her with his embrace but placing the most gentle and tender kiss on her lips. She wrapped her arms around him and drank the moment in.  
She looked him over: he was in a long sleeve v-neck shirt that exposed his chest and a new scar was now visible down the middle of it. He looked as though his soul had been revived, he was full of life and there was passion and light in his eyes. He looked more incredible than she had ever seen him, not just physically, but spiritually. She had forgotten what his presence did to her, she felt her knees buckle and her heart soar.

“Hello, Siha.”

Tears poured down Shepard’s face as she continuously kissed Thane’s face and lips. He held her head in his hands and beamed at her. She touched his hand that was on her cheek. She had so much she needed to say to him, so much to explain, so much to catch up on. Thane desired nothing more than to make up for lost time, but he had something far more important to attend to, first thing.

Shepard looked behind Thane and saw their friends, including a smiling Kolyat, all crowding behind the entrance to the office. Grunt and Wrex were shoving everyone to get to the front.

By the time she looked back at the man she loved, he was down on one knee, ring box in hand.

Shepard clasped her hands over her mouth and continued to cry, but these tears were filled with love and overwhelming relief.

“Siha, will you marry me?”


	2. Kolyat

"I can't even begin to imagine how you must be feeling right now." Kolyat said quietly.

Kolyat's dark eyes looked hard into Shepard's, tear stains on her cheeks. They sat across from each other in the office where his father had just proposed. Thane had joined the rest of the party to socialize and accept congratulatory drinks from the Normandy crew.

"I'm okay. Really, I'll be okay. There’s just been so much to take in lately." Shepard said softly.

She looked down at the new ring on her finger. It had a thin rose gold band and one princess cut two carat diamond in the middle. It was simple but breathtaking. Shepard had never worn much jewelry because she was in combat so frequently and her hands were often full of cuts and bruises, but she fell madly in love with the ring the moment Thane placed it on her finger. She still couldn’t believe it every time she looked down at her hand. The ring was beautiful of course, but it wasn’t about the ring. It was what the ring represented. She couldn’t believe that all of this was real, that the Reapers were truly destroyed, that the love of her life had his terminal illness completely treated, and that she was going to be able to spend the rest of her life with him. All those nights in the Normandy where she quietly wept as Thane slept beside her because she never knew how much time she had left with him were now just bad memories that she could replace with countless new beautiful ones. They finally had the one thing there was just never enough of: time.

Much to Shepard's surprise, Kolyat took her hand in both of his. This was a side of Kolyat she had never seen: emotional, concerned, vulnerable. He normally put on such a strong front to hide the deep pain he felt inside. Shepard and Kolyat sent each other messages frequently throughout Thane's time in the hospital, but they had only met in person once.

"I've never truly gotten the chance to thank you properly, Shepard. For everything. For helping my father stop me from taking out Talid. For bringing us back together. For loving him when he no longer loved himself. For saving both of us."

Shepard thought she had finished crying. She was wrong.

Kolyat sighed and looked down at the floor.

"Before you and my father stopped me on the Citadel, I was at the worst place in my life. I lost my mother so young, I felt that my father had abandoned me, and I knew his days were numbered. I had nothing to look forward to in my life. I felt so hopeless. I turned to jobs like that because it was the only thing I thought I might be able to do. When I first saw my father again, I was so angry. All the hurt from everything we had been through came flooding back to me all at once. But I could tell the second I saw him that something had changed in him. There was sadness, regret, and...joy in his face. I had only seen the sadness and regret for so long. I knew the sadness was from what I was about to do and the years we had been apart. I knew deep down how much what happened to my mother broke him, how it numbed him to the world. I know he thought it was his fault, and for a while I believed that too. But deep down I always knew that wasn’t true. He became lost in his work. But then, he found you. I could tell instantly when I saw him that he had changed. He looked back at you with such deep concern and love. I hadn't seen him like that since my mother was alive."

Shepard was overwhelmed by his words. Her eyes filled up and she felt a wave of affection for her future son in law.

"He told me he had been completely prepared for the end of his life to come. But then he told me that you had awoken him, that he was devastated that he would have to leave us. He broke down in front of me and begged the gods for a miracle. Anything to give him more time here to fix our relationship, to be with you. I had never seen him like that. When my mother died he was distraught, but if anything it just reduced his will to live, to try to fight his disease. When you brought him back into my life and when you loved him so completely knowing fully that your days together were numbered, it made him want to survive, to find any way to beat Kepral’s. He just loves you so much. So Shepard, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm thrilled and proud to have you as a member of my family. I look forward to getting to know you better, just you. Not just Commander Shepard, but the real Shepard, the one my father’s told me so much about."

Shepard wiped her eyes and smiled brightly. She put her hand on Kolyat's shoulder.

"Kolyat, thank you so much. All of that means so much to me, you have no idea. I am so grateful for you and your father, you both have brought me so much joy and so much hope these last few years. I can't properly express to you how much Thane loves you and how proud he is of you. I know we didn't get many chances to speak outside of messages, but I'm so glad I've been able to get to know you better in the midst of all the chaos of the war. It's so important to me that you know that I truly love your father with all my heart and want nothing more than to be in your both of your lives. I know nothing will ever replace your mother and I would never try to do that in any way, but thank you for being so accepting of your father being with someone else after her passing. From what you and Thane have told me, she sounded like such an incredibly beautiful, kind, and courageous woman. I truly wish I could have met her. Thank you for your tireless research finding Thane’s treatment and being by his side before and after his surgery when I couldn't be there. We wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t have him here if it wasn’t for you. I never worried about him knowing he was in your care."

Kolyat smiled. "Thank you, Shepard."

"So I guess you'd better start working on weddings plans soon, huh?" Kolyat said, attempting to lighten the serious mood.

Shepard laughed.  
"I guess so!"

Kolyat looked up, Shepard noticed him look away and she turned around. Thane walked up to the doorway and leaned on the edge of the door frame.

"There you two are!" Thane said warmly, his eyes soft and joyful.

"Hey Dad, Shepard and I were just catching up." 

Shepard stood up and put her arm around Thane’s waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Ready to get back to the party?" Kolyat said, slapping his hand on his father's shoulder.

"Absolutely." Shepard replied.

Shepard heard a crash from the next room.

"WASN'T ME!" she heard Grunt roar.

Shepard put her face in her hands, fighting back laughter.

"Let's get back before Grunt starts a second rite of passage in my living room, shall we?"


End file.
